In the June 1969 issue of Research/Development, there is an article appearing on page 42 entitled "The L-O-F Semicontinuous Thermal Evaporation Plant" in which there is described apparatus for depositing as many as three layers on the sheet of glass with the sheet of glass in a generally vertical position. This apparatus has a number of disadvantages such as the difficulty of providing suitable evaporation sources for evaporating onto vertical surfaces. In addition, such apparatus has lacked the desired versatility. There is, therefore, a need for a new and improved apparatus and method which can be utilized for coating large substrates.